The Duke's Disaster (R) by Grace Burrowes Read Free Book Online Page B

cock anticipating the consummation of their vows, Noah padded to the bed and climbed in. He bounced over to his wife’s side and wrestled her into his embrace, all their previous kissing apparently forgotten.
    His dear bride was stiff in his arms and averting her face.
    “You said you’d give me time, Anselm.”
    Time to become even more nervous and fearful? Not likely.
    “I said we’d consummate our vows and then take our dealings slowly,” he reminded her. “There’s no point to putting this off, Thea. None at all.”
    “Yes”—he heard her nervous swallow—“there is.”

Four

    “Wife, you will settle yourself.”
    Noah grazed his nose along a delicate feminine collarbone. “You are giving in to maidenly vapors. You should be trusting your lawfully wedded spouse instead, because what will pass between us in this bed is nothing remarkable. We’re designed for this activity by God Almighty, and it does not require more discussion.”
    He seized her mouth a little inexpertly—she was wiggling—and she grabbed his hair. She’d taken off the night rail, though Noah spent a small eternity distracting her with kisses so he could ease the nightgown up over her curves. He’d just about got the dratted, endless nightgown up to her thighs when she distracted him with a foray into his mouth with the tip of her tongue.
    He was so distracted, in fact, that his hand stole up over her ribs and gently shaped a soft, lush breast. Because Thea lay flush against him, Noah felt her body undulate in response, felt her spine give as she groaned softly into his mouth.
    “You like that.” Not a question or a ducal command, but a satisfying, whispered statement of fact. As Noah caressed that same breast a tad more firmly, Thea arched into his hand. “You like it a lot.”
    Surely that meant she liked her husband some too?
    Thea fused her mouth to his for his honesty, silencing him. Noah sneaked a hand under the billows of her nightgown and palmed her breast with his bare hand in retaliation, feeling tremors of desire reverberate through her.
    Well, thank all the gods, he’d married a passionate lady, and wasn’t that just the best surprise so far?
    Noah shifted over Thea, but didn’t let their mouths part for more than a moment.
    “Wrap your legs around me,” he whispered, and when her eyes flew open and her body went still, he smiled down at her. “ Please , rather. Would you please wrap your legs…?” He fitted her legs around his naked flanks and settled his body closer to hers.
    “Your job,” he said as he nuzzled at her sex with his arousal, “is to relax. There will be time later for more exuberant measures, but for tonight, you let me… Ah, there you are.”
    He found his true north, or her true south as the case was, and flexed forward carefully. She was damp, wonderfully, invitingly damp, and he’d not even touched her sex.
    “Your Grace—”
    “Noah, or Anselm if you must.” He flexed again, and gained the first, blissful hint of penetration. “Or my dear or dearest Husband or—”
    “Your Grace, please, you must not—”
    “Hush now.” He dropped to his forearms, settling in for the most pleasurable business. “Relax, just relax.”
    “But my… Noah, you must stop .” Her voice rose on a panicked note as he gave her the first solid thrust, then another, even as she pulled on his hair.
    “Almost there, love.” He tossed his head, liking that she didn’t let go of his hair. “And I won’t—oh, Jesus, that’s so damned sweet.” Thinking only to spare Thea a prolonged breaching, Noah thrust hard enough to hilt himself in the wicked, wet heat of her, then went still.
    “That’s it.” He lowered his cheek to rest on hers. “That’s the worst of it. You’re all right, aren’t you?”
    “Oh, please just get off me.”
    Thea’s tone held such misery that Noah stayed exactly where he was—despite the lust screaming at him—and considered coming without moving. He could do it, he